


Getting Our Act Straight

by babyteresa



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Human, Bisexual Clary Fray, Bisexual Isabelle Lightwood, Clary Fray & Isabelle Lightwood Friendship, F/F, Fake Dating, Fluff, Good Friend Clary Fray, Halloween party!!, I dont meant to pick on Meliorn, Isabelle Lightwood is a chaotic bisexual, Mutual Pining, a lil bit of angst, he's just kinda there
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-07-15 10:52:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16061615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babyteresa/pseuds/babyteresa
Summary: Isabelle Lightwood was fucked.A series of bad desicions had left her with two days to find a date for her ex-boyfriend's Halloween party.So it was a good thing her best friend was always there for her.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Aka a self-indulgent clizzy fake dating au because being a Disaster Lesbian is my Brand.  
> I made a tumblr!! come talk to me bc I love attention!! https://lady-teresa.tumblr.com/

Isabelle Lightwood was fucked, that much was certain.

She fumed on the subway home, replaying again and again in her mind what had just went down. God, she could be so stupid sometimes. Her older brother always told her that her stubborn streak would be the death of her.

She should have just said no, that she couldn’t make it that night, that she would be busy studying. But of course she said yes to Meliorn’s Halloween party, more specifically her ex-boyfriend Meliorn’s Halloween party. The invitation had been a challenge, she knew that, and Izzy was never one to turn down a challenge. Especially when it came to boys.

And she wanted to make Meliorn jealous. So when he had asked if she was bringing a date, she smirked and said “of course.” And when he asked who her date was, she had shrugged, still smirking. “It’s a surprise,” she said.

And now, sitting alone on the train, she wanted to kick herself. She had not date, no one to ask. Of course, most boys wouldn’t turn her down, but _most boys_ wouldn’t make Meliorn jealous. Of course, she could simply not turn up, tell him something had come up, but that would be letting him win. And Isabelle never conceded that easily.

So, she had two days to find herself a date.

God, she was well and truly fucked.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi ppl!! Here is some actual plot!!
> 
> If you're enjoying this fic please feel free to give kudos/comment and come talk to me on tumblr: [lady-teresa](https://lady-teresa.tumblr.com/)
> 
> unbeta'd so please let me know about any errors, also I'm not american so I don't really know very much about what american high school is actually like, so sorry if i'm getting stuff wrong
> 
> anyway thanks for reading lovelies!!! ily!!!

“Clary,” She groaned into the phone, kicking off her ankle boots and flopping backwards onto her bed. Once she had gotten home, she had all but run upstairs, only stopping at the door decorated with sparkly, colourful stickers spelling _Izzy –_ still there after years ago, when she had stuck them to the door as a kid. It had been much to the chagrin of her mother, who incessantly required everything and everyone in her life to perfect and pristine.

“What is it?” her best friend asked, voice tinny through the phone, not trying at all to mask the humour in her voice towards Izzy’s despair.

“I fucked up,” she said, sinking into her soft, quilted duvet.

“Again?” Clary teased.

“Hey!”

“Tell me what happened,” Clary said, her voice still teasing but friendly.

Izzy took a deep breath, rolling over on the bed so that she was laying on her stomach, propping her arms up on her multiple plush pillows at the head of her bed. “So I was talking to Meliorn-”

“You were talking to Meliorn?” Clary groaned, exasperated. Izzy heard her sigh through the phone. “I swear to God, Isabelle-”

“So I was talking to Meliorn,” Izzy repeated, interrupting her friend. “And he invited me to his Halloween party, and I know he wants us to get back together, but-”

“So you turned him down, right?” Clary demanded.

“…No,” Izzy admitted.

She had to pull the phone away from her ear when Clary started yelling. Through the shitty phone speaker her voice was distorted, but she got the gist of what her friend was saying. Things like _girl, don’t, how dumb can you get, you’re better than this._

“I didn’t say I’m going _with him,”_ Izzy explained once Clary calmed down, both of them giggling slightly. “I told him that I’m bringing a date.”

“You’re trying to make him jealous?” Clary asked.

“Duh,” was Izzy’s reply. She heard Clary laugh over the phone. Her laugh was cute, melodic, like tinkling bells chiming all at once.

“Who’s your date? And why am I only just hearing that you’re dating again?” Clary asked once she had stopped laughing.

“Well, that’s the problem,” Izzy said. “I don’t exactly have one.”

“Oh, Isabelle,” Clary sighed after a sort moment of silence on her line. “And it’s in what, two days?”

“Yeah,” Izzy replied. “And I don’t know what I’m going to do, like I can’t ask Simon.” Simon, aside from Clary, was her closest friend. He was cute, too, in that nerdy kind of way. But at that point he was basically dating Maia, even though they both insisted they weren’t a “thing.” Izzy assumed that at some point in the near future she would see them together, sitting close together and giggling quietly at each other’s jokes in the way they always did, but then with their arms around each other to let everyone know they were an item. Simon was well and truly off the table.

“Just don’t go,” Clary suggested, “Say something came up. You’re always busy, it’s not like you’ll really be lying.”

“You know I’m not going to do that,” Izzy told her, sighing. She heard Clary echo her sigh.

“Have I ever told you that you’re insufferable?” her best friend of more than two years years asked.

“Too many times to count,” Izzy replied, and as she did she heard the rattle of a key unlocking the front door downstairs, and the creak as the door itself was pushed opened, followed by the sharp click of heels against polished floorboards.

“Isabelle!” Called out the voice from downstairs, the impatient and demanding voice of her mother.

“I gotta go,” she said quickly to Clary, who uttered a rapid _see you_ before she hung up, dropping her phone on the bed as she stood up, regretfully making her way out of her bedroom and down the stairs into the foyer of the townhouse to greet her mother.

Maryse Lightwood was a stern woman with a just as stern face, her mouth seemingly always drawn into a tight-lipped, disapproving frown. Izzy had often been compared to her, they shared the same straight, silky dark hair that they both kept long, although Maryse always kept it tied into a neat updo, while Izzy most often left hers out. They had the same dark eyes, the same olive-toned skin. But Izzy liked to think that that was where the resemblance stopped. Her mother loved her, in her own way, but Izzy knew she didn’t want to be like her. She didn’t want to be so tightly-wound and demanding in the way Maryse had always been.

And Isabelle hadn’t even been the one who had borne the brunt of Maryse’s impossible high standards. Sure, her and Jace, as well as her youngest brother Max, once he grown old enough to be tested by her mother’s demands, had been placed under significant pressure, but most of it had always fallen upon Alec, her eldest brother. He was the one on which their parents placed the burden of _upholding the Lightwood name._

However, ever since Alec and Jace had moved away for college, a lot of that pressure had fallen onto her, the de-facto eldest child in the household. And in her senior year of high school, her parents expected her to do well, get good grades and get into whichever school they had decided she would attend.

Being around Maryse Lightwood was never _enjoyable,_ and it was even less enjoyable for Izzy now.

“Hey Mom,” Izzy said, conversationally, as Maryse marched past her and into the kitchen, placing her black leather Birkin bag down upon the pristine marble island counter, making her way over to the sink, taking a glass out of the drying rack and then opening the fridge, pouring into the glass water from a tall pitcher.

“How was school?” her mother asked, straight to the point.

“Good,” she replied, shrugging.

Maryse had only taken a tentative sip from the glass before she set it down on the counter, turning to look at her daughter, her stern gaze falling upon Isabelle. “Good?” she questioned, silently telling Izzy that her answer had not been sufficient.

“I…” she began, not quite sure what to say. “I’ve been organising for extra tutoring after school,” she said. “So I can do the best I can on my exams.”

“That’s excellent, Isabelle,” her mother told her, flashing her one of her rare smiles. “I’m looking forward to you achieving excellent results this semester, as always.” It seemed supportive from the outside, but Izzy noticed the lack of _I hope_ from her mother. The demand was there, like it always was.

Maryse took another sip from her glass of water and fished her phone out of her bag. Izzy wondered if she was expecting a message from her father. He travelled so often now, for business. This trip had kept him away from home for almost a month, leaving just her, Maryse, and Max in the spacious townhouse, making it feel even more empty than usual. It had been so quiet, ever since her brothers had left and Max had become serious about his schoolwork after much pushing from her two parents. It was like she never saw her brothers anymore.

“Any news from Dad?” she asked, as her mother looked up from her phone.

“No,” she said, frowning, dropping her phone back into her back so quickly it was as if it had burnt her.

“I’ve had a long day,” Maryse said after a brief pause, her eyes flicking back to Isabelle with such purpose it was like she had been in a stupor. “I hope you don’t mind that I really don’t feel like cooking. I thought I’d pick up takeout from Taki’s after I pick Max up from karate.”

“Sound’s good Mom,” Izzy replied, eyeing her mother with just an edge of concern. Despite their differences, sometimes she worried about her mother. Worried that she wore herself too thin.

Maryse grabbed her bag off the counter, slinging it over her shoulder and brushed past Izzy. Her heels clicked with urgency against the floor as she made her way out of the kitchen and back into the foyer, opening the front door and closing it behind her, leaving Izzy alone in the house once again.

She let out a deep breath she had been holding in. Even short exchanges with her mother left her feeling tense and stressed.

She made her way back upstairs, walking back into her room and sitting back down on her bed, picking her phone off the duvet where she had left it.

There were a few notifications, at the top a string of texts from Clary. She smiled and let out a small laugh when she saw that Clary had messaged her a list of all the boys they both knew, finishing the list with the words _potential revenge date?_

She unlocked her phone and dialled Clary, lying back on her bed and staring at the ceiling as the phone rang.

“Hey,” Clary said as she picked up the call, dragging out the word sarcastically.

“Your list is garbage,” Izzy stated, deadpan.

Clary gasped with mock offense, making Izzy laugh. “I’ll have you know I _laboured_ over that list,” she said in a sing-song voice. “Poured my _heart and soul_ into it-”

“No one on that list is going to make Meliorn jealous. All the boys we know are boring,” she complained.

“Simon isn’t boring!” Clary exclaimed. Simon and Clary had been friends for far longer than she had been friends with Clary; they’d met on their first ever day of school, she had told Izzy, and they’d been inseparable ever since. Simon was like a bother to Clary, an only child.

“Of course Simon isn’t boring,” Izzy replied. “But Simon isn’t on the list, he’s too busy canoodling with Maia.”

“Canoodling?” Clary parroted, laughing in that melodic way of hers again.

“I stand by what I said,” she said with false seriousness, but she broke own laughing as she said the last word.

Izzy sighed, sinking into her bed, a comfortable silence falling between the two of them as their laughs subsided. She realised then how tired she was, school had been so taxing lately she was barely sleeping, running off instant coffee and sugar. She hadn’t been lying to her mother when she said she was looking for tutoring, taking advanced placement in chemistry and biology, as well as law upon her parent’s insistence, had given her a workload she could barely keep on top of, no matter how rigorous her study routine was.

She loved science, she wanted to pursue after she completed high school, but she knew it wouldn’t be what her parents wanted for her. They wanted her to go to business, of course, convince her to pursue in college just as they had done with Jace and Alec. A tiny part of her told her she should simply drop her AP science classes, because they’d be redundant going into whatever college degree her parents would end up choosing for her.

“Earth to Isabelle?” came Clary’s tinny voice through the phone.

“Huh?” she asked, drawn out of her self-pitying thoughts and back to the real world.

“I said I’d go,” Clary said, repeating whatever it was while Izzy was off in her daydream.

“Go where?” Izzy questioned, confused.

“To the party with you, dummy.” Clary said, giggling. “I’ll be your date!”

“Wait…really?” Izzy asked, the gears in her head slowly beginning to turn.

“I bet you it’ll make Meliorn jealous,” she said, and Izzy could just imagine the sly grin Clary would be flashing her if she were in the room with her. “So what do you say?”

“I mean…” she began, unsure of the idea. “Why not? How bad could it be?”


End file.
